Teach me Paladin?

[Shuemue]

Ya, nearly 14 paladin, no idea what I'm doing with regard to talents really, any suggestions?

[Noobta]

5/5 Benediction
2/2 Imp judgements
3/3 Heart of crusader
1/1 Seal of command
5/5 Conviction
3/3 Sanctified seals
1/3 Crusade
3/3 2-hand weapon spec.
1/1 Sanctified Retribution
2/3 Crusade
3/3 Vengeance
3/3 Crusader
1/2 Imp ret aura
3/3 JoW
1/1 Repentance
1/2 Art of war
5/5 Fanaticism
1/1 Crusader Strike
2/2 Art of war
2/2 Sanctified Wrath
1/3 Sheath of light
5/5 Righteous Vengeance
1/1 Divine Storm
5/5 Divine Strength
You should have an idea of what you want by then. I'm also not sure how this would work, I leveled Paladin over a year ago.

[Krandor]

It might be different with the boosts to ret, but once you ding 40 and get Holy Shield, AoE prot grinding is pimp, taking on like 7-8 (or more) mobs at the same time with almost 0 downtime.

[Shuemue]

taking on like 7-8 (or more) mobs at the same time with almost 0 downtime.

That sounds awesome, and would pretty much solve the 'no ranged attack' problem if I can survive in a pack of mobs

[fantasticdan]

It might be different with the boosts to ret, but once you ding 40 and get Holy Shield, AoE prot grinding is pimp, taking on like 7-8 (or more) mobs at the same time with almost 0 downtime.

Unless you're on a pvp server.

[Shuemue]

I'm on a pvp server, if I get repeatedly ganked I'll force Aurik to escort me everywhere

[fantasticdan]

As ret you can out 1v1 most classes/specs around your level, even if they get the first hit on you. As prot (especially with a bunch of mobs on you), you're going to lose to pretty much everyone without downs. Not to mention you're going to get way more gank attempts as a prot sitting there aoe grinding tons of shit.

Less corpse runs > slight exp advantage of prot grinding (if there even is any after all those ret buffs).

[Noobta]

I liked leveling prot. Besides caster's being a bitch, it was pretty good exp. I did 64-67 in the AV gnoll cave, had almost 40k honor when I hit 70.

[Koul]

like krandor said, ret > 40 then prot it up

I never really had any trouble handling a potential ganking session whilst lvling... enemy players tend to let their guard down more if they see you already have 3 mobs on you. Just let the NPCs proc your reckoning and tear the PC's ass up. keep seal of light and judgement of light on and you should be okay

only gets easier at 50 with avengers shield and at 60 with Hammer of Righteous. you'll also be able to get groups easier being prot but if you have a shield and 1hander, you can tank fine as ret too

[Plow]

I'm actually leveling for wotlk as holy.


a. Can still aoe grind

b. nobody that wouldn't kill me regardless of spec can kill me (i.e. only concern at all is locks, spriests, and gangbangs), and I can deal with rets and other melee and crap attacking me even while I have a bigass mob of shit on me

c. I seem to be the only heal specced person in the world atm and can get in any instance I want in about .0005 seconds

d. with 4 really sick dps I can tank and heal instances at the same time



If you catch up with the dk's or the big rush within a week or 2, you might wanna give holy leveling a shot, it's pretty nice, as far as I'm concerned it's the best spec for anything atm other than straight up single target fight grind quests like "kill 10 of xxx."


And beacon of light is just about the coolest thing ever.

[Koyangi]

if you're going to ret, you better cap sheath of light, stack attack power and strength will also increase your SP which is seal of command, judgements, CS, consecration, and hammer of wrath buff all in 1(divine storm b4 nerf, but still). SoL is priceless.

In the expansion though, and I can agree even with 40+, prot leveling is so awesome and very fun, and getting an instance is very easy.

[Shuemue]

WorldofWarcraft.com -> Info -> Classes -> Paladin -> Talent Calculator

That's the spec I've had suggested to me, any thoughts on it?

[fantasticdan]

I would definitely take 2/2 pursuit of justice and vindication for leveling. Just running between mobs 15% faster is pretty good for exp rate, and vindication proc rate is very high.

As ret you will be knocking down mobs in a couple GCDs, mostly one at a time, so the extra reflective damage from improved ret aura isn't that great. Swift retribution is a nice talent, but again, when you're killing mobs in a couple instant attacks, 1-3% haste on your auto-attacks isn't doing much, if anything. Not to say you shouldn't pick either of those talents up, but they are low priority. I wouldn't touch them until 70+ when you already have 5/5 divine strength and all the useful stuff out of ret.

[Shuemue]

Devotion Aura or Retribution Aura for levelling?

[Noobta]

Ret I would say

[EternityEnd]

Retribution.

[Krandor]

Ret aura is tops for leveling, especially with the recent change to pushback mechanics.

[Shuemue]

Also, what a huge shock that Krandor plays paladin, heh

[Tomino]

i'm thinking of respeccing to Holy for questing/instancing, but i'm quite clueless on how it plays solo/grinding..
1h+shield i take? Seal of Rightouness, Wise Judge and Holy Shock rotation?

[Norellicus]

I have a friend who leveled/plays prot, and it's amazing to watch him go as long as he's got like 10 mobs on him; during the scourge invasion he could tank one of the shadows of doom+6ish mobs np, with only a rolling lifebloom from me (and even then most ticks were wasted)...but as the non elites died off, he started taking more damage. So while prot can be pretty fast if you find a groove for it, if you don't get into that groove it's painfully slow. Ret at least gives you a guaranteed amount of output.

That said I'd level prot because I like instances and people need well-specced tanks more than they do well-specced DPS